Militants reportedly want to swap two American hostages being held by an al Qaeda-linked group at a gas plant in Algeria for two prominent terror figures jailed in the United States: Omar Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted of shooting at two US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The offer, according to a Mauritanian news site that frequently broadcasts dispatches from groups linked to al Qaeda, came from Moktar Belmoktar, an extremist commander based in Mali who apparently masterminded the operation.

A US Air Force aero evacuation plane is also in the process of rescuing the hostages, [who] will be flown to a US facility in Europe.